Igor Sechin (left) and Gennady Timchenko

BEIJING, November 10. /TASS/. Neither Rosneft, nor Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko have been involved in any wrongdoing, and this will be easily proven in court, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told the Rossiya-24 television news channel in an interview.

“I am not familiar with the circumstances of this case, but I know for certain that neither Rosneft, nor Timchenko were involved in any wrongdoing, and we shall prove that in court very easily. Rumours and falsehoods are no business of ours,” Sechin said.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal said the Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York with assistance from the US Department of Justice launched an investigation against the co-founder of the Gunvor trader, Gennady Timchenko. According to the WSJ the purpose of the investigation is to probe into the legality of transactions performed through US banks. A source claims the investigators are studying the financing of deals to purchase oil from the company Rosneft.

Timchenko sold the main asset - 44% of the oil trader Gunvor - to his partner Torbjorn Tornqvist the day before the US authorities published its black list of Russians to whom sanctions applied. Gennady Timchenko was one of the persons mentioned on that list.

“The statements about an on-going investigation of Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko may stem from the US authorities’ wish to expand sanctions against Russia,” Timchenko’s spokesman Anton Kurevin said earlier.

“The first statements the US Department of Justice was investigating the Gunvor company and Gennady Timchenko were made back two years ago and published by the Wall Street Journal-connected daily Vedomosti. Those statements had no proof or official statements by US investigation authorities or attorney’s offices to rely on. We are urging critical assessment of these statements, bearing in mind the politicized attitude of a number of US mass media towards the biggest Russian companies and the active attempts by US political quarters to make the European Union expand its sanctions against Russian businesses,” Kurevin said.

Timchenko later described the US investigation by the American authorities as another attempt to deal a blow on Russian president Vladimir Putin.